MARSEILLE, France — When it was all over, Vanessa Gilles had no more tears left in her. She had shed those the previous two weeks, in countless players-only meetings when the Canadian team sat together in disbelief, anger and shock. With each revelation regarding the cheating scandal involving former head coach Bev Priestman and a six-point deduction from FIFA, Gilles and her teammates felt like they couldn’t take any more hits.
Canada’s games — must-wins from the first game of group stage, onward — came as something of a relief. Even on Saturday night, when it was 87 degrees in Marseille and the humidity swallowed the players from the moment they left the locker room, there was a respite in just being between the lines. In just playing soccer.
“To have gotten this far is a testament to our group, to our mentality,” Gilles said. “I’m just proud of the team for how we stuck together.”
Even as shot after shot for Canada missed the back of the net (23, in all) and as the scoreless game against Germany went into extra time there was faith among the players that things would turn around. They had already beaten the odds, they could do it again, right? Even when the game went into penalty kicks, there was confidence.
They had been in this position before at the 2021 Olympic Games in the gold medal match. They won that night. But on Saturday night, that did not happen. Germany advanced on penalty kicks and will face the United States on Tuesday while the defending gold medalists will board flights on Sunday back to Paris or elsewhere in the world as they rejoin their clubs. There will be no repeat, no parade, no medal.
“It’s been a really dark place for the last couple of weeks, but in the midst of that, we’ve also created some of our best memories as a team,” Janine Beckie said. “It has been a strange couple of weeks but I’m going to leave tonight so much prouder of this team than I ever have been.”
Canada didn’t win. But they didn’t lose either — make that distinction clear. Though this game will go down as a loss on their record, the players on this team can leave France with a distinct pride for what they have done over the past four games. That this team, one that was essentially docked two wins, was inches away from the semifinals is something, and someday these players should hold that feeling closely. It might not carry the same weight as a gold medal, but pride is pretty heavy, too, and the players — even the ones who could cry and exited the pitch with red eyes — clearly contained that.
Canada advanced to the quarterfinals despite a six-point deduction in the group stage. (Photo by Alex Livesey, Getty Images)
Canada soccer has many questions to answer moving forward, and an investigation will reveal that all eventually. Interim coach Andy Spence declined to comment on Saturday night about the email that Priestman sent in which she wrote that spying on opponents, “can be the difference between winning and losing and all top 10 teams do it.”
But any lingering questions about the players on this team were fully answered through four games in France. In each game, a different hero stole the show. Against New Zealand, down 0-1 early, it was Cloé Lacasse and substitute Evelyne Viens who finished for Canada. Against France, again down 0-1, it was captain Jessie Fleming with the equalizer and Gilles with the stoppage time goal. Gilles again showed up huge against Colombia with the only goal of the night, the final piece of the puzzle that allowed Canada to advance to the quarterfinals.
And on Saturday night, though no player scored in regulation or extra time, Spence remarked about how impressed he was for a squad to put up 23 shots on a top-10 team. More than anything, what impressed about Canada was how it held together after a slow start. Through the first 57 minutes, Canada totaled just four shots. But with a trio of substitutes coming into the game (Viens, Adriana Leon and Lacasse, as well as Beckie at half for an injured Fleming), the offense exploded. With 20-year-old Simi Awujo, the youngest member of this team, holding down the center of the field and playing 109 minutes (as well as six players playing 120 minutes), Canada has much to hold up in terms of what they accomplished in France.
What comes next is anyone’s guess. Canada Soccer — a federation in which its women’s players had finally felt as though it were on the right track, getting the right kind of momentum — will have decisions to make.
For the players, there will perhaps be more tears, when they’re finally able to find them again. Maybe some social media detoxes and reflection. But from a situation in which it’s hard to imagine a tougher road, the path from here is clear: Canada has a team of fighters who, with their backs against the wall, showed mettle, leadership and hunger. They showed poise at every stop. Canada Soccer would be smart not to get in their way.
“I think it’s a really galvanizing experience,” Beckie said. “I’m closer to these 21 players than any teammates I’ve ever played with. This experience will no doubt make us stronger as individuals, as players. I think in the midst of all this you’ve seen some of Canada’s best performances as a team.”
That this team returns home without a medal, or even a shot at one, will sting, because it should. The Olympics doesn’t come with consolation prizes.
“It wasn’t the story for us. This is how our story ends, and in my mind, we’ve already won. We got through what a lot of people said was an impossible situation to get through,” Beckie said. “To do that and put the kind of performance in that we did today is pretty remarkable.”
(Top photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Read the full article here